"I'll drive the ghosts out of ye!" Mr.Verner had seated himself in his study, with a view of investigating systematically the circumstances attending the affair, so far as they were known.

At present all seemed involved in a Babel of confusion, even the open details.
"Those able to tell anything of it shall come before me, one by one," he observed; "we may get at something then." The only stranger present was Mr.Bitterworth, an old and intimate friend of Mr.Verner.He was a man of good property, and resided a little beyond Verner's Pride.

Others--plenty of them--had been eager to assist in what they called the investigation, but Mr.Verner had declined.

The public investigation would come soon enough, he observed, and that must satisfy them.

Mrs.Verner saw no reason why she should be absent, and she took her seat.